I’m a big fan of baking with cinnamon. I’m also a redhead, so this is a bit of a bad pun. This blog is intended to chronicle some baking adventures and share baking pictures and recipes. All pictures you will find on this site are taken by me, unless otherwise noted.
Peanut butter filling and shortbread cookies covered in melted chocolate
To make the homemade delights, follow the steps below (original source here):
Step 1 — Shortbread cookies:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 cups AP flour
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tbsp milk
Preheat oven to 350’F. Combine wet team and mix until fluffy (milk, sugar, softened butter, vanilla), add dry team (flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon) and carefully mix. Form into tablespoon-sized balls and flatten in palm until 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Place on nonstick cookie sheet, bake for 11-13 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Remove cookies from oven, but leave on cookie sheet.
Next, take your thumb or a measuring spoon and make indents in the center of each cookie. Do this while the cookies are still warm (but not too hot to hurt your thumb). Be careful not to press too hard or the cookie will split and crack. Let shortbread cool completely.
Step 2 — Peanut butter filling:
- 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
- 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
- generous pinch salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 8-oz semisweet chocolate
Combine peanut butter, sugar, salt, vanilla and cinnamon in the mixer. Mix until fluffy and light brown in color, and then put in microwave for 1 minute increments until hot. Transfer PB mixture into a pastry bag (or a freezer zip top bag with the corner snipped off) and pipe logs onto waiting indented shortbread cookies.
Shortbread cookies with peanut butter filling
Chop the chocolate into smallish pieces. Do not use chocolate chips, as they have additives to help the drops maintain their shapes. Set up your double-boiler and add 3/4 of chocolate. Info on how to make a safe double boiler here. Melt chocolate, and once tempering is complete, lower cookies into melted chocolate with a fork, gently turning the cookie over in the chocolate. Then carefully remove the chocolate coated cookie and place on a cookie cooling rack so the excess chocolate can drip off. You’ll want to keep adding chunks of chocolate to the melted chocolate to keep the level high enough to completely cover the cookie. (Hey, I didn’t say it wouldn’t be messy!)
Covering tagalongs in melted chocolate
Adding tempered chocolate
Let the melted chocolate drip dry
Note that the chocolate changes color and texture when dried. See the cookie in the left row, three back? That’s about right. If it remains shiny once dry, you have successfully tempered your chocolate! Hurrah!
Finally, enjoy your homemade Tagalongs with a cold glass of soy/rice/cow milk!
Yum!
Baking with Cinnamon 